Skylar Kirby
Staff Writer
Brooklyn Radar’s finishing touch in her get-ready-for- class routine is putting her headphones on. To get her mind right for chapel, she pushed play on When Wind Meets Fire, by Elevation Worship.
They stay on her head throughout the day, letting her escape from the busy college life through music.
“I’m putting my headphones on before I even walk out the door, and that goes for any time I walk out the door,” said Radar, a freshman ministry major and student athlete.
On campus, headphones have become almost as common as backpacks. Students cross the quad, maneuver through academic buildings and wait outside classrooms with headphones over their ears, seemingly tuned out from everything around them.
According to the National Institutes of Health, headphone usage is becoming extremely common on college campuses. Studies indicate that roughly 77% to over 84% of students regularly use headphones.
Headphones are a growing trend on college campuses, functioning as both a fashion accessory and a necessary personalized tool for focusing in a busy college environment, according to The Cornell Daily Sun in an article from November 2025.
While therapists say they have seen concerns with headphones leading to isolation, music lovers see it as a great escape.
Craig Adams, executive director of the center for commercial music, said that headphones are where fashion meets identity. Everyone is listening to their own personal preference of music.
“People just want to escape and stay in their own little world where they have custom tailored their own experience,” said Adams.
According to Esmeralda Ramirez, a counselor at the Trevecca counseling center, listening to something in headphones can be a way for students to regulate their system and their emotions.
Ramirez said that headphones can be beneficial for people with anxiety. Students who struggle with confrontation or find it hard to focus, tend to use headphones as a safe space.
“Some students might want to avoid conversation, or they have social anxiety. Headphones can be a way for them to stay in their bubble,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez said that headphones can lead to isolation and cause missed opportunities.
“If the music is too loud, or you’re using it as a way to not have to be social, then that’s where opportunities can be missed,” said Ramirez. “Talking to someone can take you a long way. You never know what a conversation can bring.”
On Trevecca’s Christian campus, there is a wide range of musical genres being played.
Libby VanHeemst, a criminal justice major and regional volleyball player, said she was listening to Chest Pain, by Malcolm Todd, on the way to her math class.
Daniel Beadle, a business marketing major, was listening to Tears in the Club, by FKA twigs, in the Hub.
“Everyone’s got their own thing. Different people seem to find their peace or calm in different music genres,” said Adams.
According to Adams, some of it stems from the experiences people have had and the emotions they carry. It all plays a part in music preference.
“The interesting thing to me as a musician about that is this: I don’t meet many people that have identical music preferences, but I’ve never yet met anyone who didn’t have a favorite song or kind of music,” said Adams. “Makes me think that somewhere hardwired in our personality there is something within us that responds to different melodies, rhythms, harmonies and different combinations.”
Headphones can be seen as a distraction, but according to Adams, music itself is not the distraction, it is how people use it and what they have done with it.
“The reality is that there is a lot of great stuff to experience in music. It’s down to your personal preference on whether you wear headphones or not and the music you listen to at the end of the day,” said Adams.
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